Scattergories

Gameplay

Scattergories is a word game, played by naming different items in a category, all with the same initial, while on the clock. The game allows for two to six players, but if you get creative, you could play with as many people as you’d like.

There are twelve different category cards, and on each card is four lists. Each list is comprised with twelve random categories. Playing off of one list at a time, one player rolls a die with letters on it, and whichever letter it lands on is the letter each object in the category must start with. You have three minutes to fill in the twelve blanks—it’s a lot harder than it sounds!

The object of the game is to score as many points as you can. Points are earned by naming a unique object in the category. For example, if the category is dog breeds, and you are the only person who writes “golden retriever,” you earn one point. However, if more than one person writes “golden retriever,” no one earns a point. If you answer with an alliteration, say the category is presidents and the letter is “r” and you write “Ronald Reagan,” you’d earn two points. The game is played in rounds, each round consists of three lists. Whoever gets the most points in a round wins that round, and then the next round begins.

What makes this a party game are the debates it can spark. If you think someone’s answer does not fit the category, you can challenge that answer, and players must vote if the answer is valid or not. For example, I was playing this with my brother not long ago, and the category was “things you save up for” and the letter was “c.” My clever younger brother wrote “carburetor,” which for most of the general population that doesn’t know what that is, it’s a device used in vehicles to supply an engine with a mixture of fuel and air. Many players in our group thought that one wouldn’t save up for such a thing, while he argued that people who enjoy fixing up old cars just might. We ultimately gave him the point.

History

Scattergories was published in 1988 by Milton Bradley, and the individual designer is currently unknown. If you happen to know the story behind Scattergories, let me know!

Variations

In 1989, Milton Bradley published a “refill”pack of 18 new cards with 144 new categories.

In 2008, Winning Moves Games USA published Scattergories The Card Game, which is a portal version of the game. It comes with a deck of letter cards, a deck of category cards, and two “I Know” cards. The game begins with a player turning over the top card in the letter deck and category deck, and the first person to slap the “I know” card and shout out a correct answer claims either card and turns over a new letter or category deck (whichever one they didn’t take). The game ends when one entire deck is through, and the player with the most cards wins.

In 2010, Puzzlewright Press published Scattergories Word Search Puzzles, designed by Mark Danna, a former associate editor at Games magazine. The book allows for solo play in the following variations:

• Instead of coming up with unique answers, try to match answers, which are hidden in a word search
• Write down two answers instead of one for each category
• Score bonus points by matching answers hidden in the word search grid’ leftover letters

In 2010, Winning Moves Games USA published Scattergories Categories. Instead of finding answers that all start with the same letter, you instead focus on one category per round and players race to find a unique answer starting with each letter in the category key word, which is related to the category in some way. For example, if the category word is “Camping Trip,” players have 2 minutes to find a word that starts with, C, then A, then M, then P, and so on, all of which must be related to the theme of “camping trip.” Players get 1 point for each unique answer and the first player to 25 points wins.

In 1993, NBC turned Scattergories into a game show hosted by Dick Clark.

Reception & Awards

Scattergories was the Mensa Select Winner in 1990.